Contenders and Pretenders

Jake wasn't the only person up for the role of Dastan. In an Obsessed with Film Exclusive Mike Newell in a press event in London was asked they had thought of any other actors for the role, he surprising acknowledged that there were a few other early contenders:

“When you don’t use them you sort of erase them from your mind, but [James] McAvoy was certainly someone we looked at and there was this dark looking chap from one of the Narnia films [likely 'Prince Caspian' star Ben Barnes].”

But Newell suggested that Jake was cast because Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney wanted an American star for the role, but added he's known Jake since he was a boy and it was more than just “this big-deal actor” as lead and embraced working with him on the project.


Seeing Jake as Dastan now it's hard to imagine anyone else as the Prince.

What do you think? Do you think McAvoy or Barnes could have been Dastan and carried the large epic?

Check out more from Newell about what inspired him making the movie and it wasn't the game.


Now for the pretender.

The Daily Beast has a great article about David Bergstein. Who is Bergstein? He is the money man, well lack of money man behind Nailed. The Beast refers to him a Hollywood's biggest hustler. The articles gives more insight what was going on during Nailed from Bergstein's money games.

When everyone was thinking that David O' Russell would be the reason thing might go pear shaped on the shoot, no one thought it would be the backers that brought the movie down and left it sitting on the shelf waiting for the one scene that is the premise to the whole movie to shot. Jessica's scene where her character gets the nail in her head, without there is no movie.

So how did they end up hooking up with this guy? Well the economy was starting to go and the big studios weren't funding smaller projects like they did when things were better, so they went out looking funding for the project. Bergstein went after these kind of smaller projects that the studios weren't funding.

"According to several sources, Bergstein has consistently lured in talent by offering just a bit more money than the next highest bidder. In the world of independent film, that’s a temptation many can’t resist. “If he’s saying, I’ll put up $24 million and the other person is saying he’ll put up $22 million—that’s a lot of money,” says a key player on Nailed."

"The cast and crew of Nailed certainly found Bergstein unfit and incompetent—and that’s putting it kindly. They suffered through repeated shutdowns when promised funds failed to materialize." And started on the very first day. SAG told its members not to work because a required bond payment had not been deposited yet. And that even meant the actors couldn't even rehearse. Great way to start out.

“We had the normal five blocks of trucks, it looked like the Marines had landed, and we couldn’t start." They got the bond and got started filming but a week later the Director’s Guild also ordered its members to stop work. And it was money problems and stops from then on out.


It is estimated that all stop work orders and delays added $4 million to $22 million production budget. Things were really bad. "By the end, some crew members were left so short of money and desperate that they made off with photocopiers and other equipment in an attempt to recoup their losses. And no one seems to blame them. 'It was the hardest movie in my life,' says one key member of the filmmaking team. 'Some people quit. Some people were brought to tears. . . They were at the breaking point.' "


Jake and Jessica, who both took reduced pay to do the film, didn't have to worry because their salary had to be secured before filming began. That was not so for the crew. Sources on the set said that Jake pressured his agents at CAA to squeeze Bergstein to get the cash and get everyone back to work, but that Bergstein "proved to be squeeze-resistant". Back on set Jake and Jess were both offering words of support to the embattled crew. Jess took off during the shutdowns, and the crew hit a local bar called The Whig. "They began to read news articles about problems on other Bergstein films, emailing distressing stories to each other with mounting horror. A group created a website called “ihatedavidbergstein.com.” And a member of the accounting staff sent Bergstein and his associates a signed “fuck-you” email—using those exact words, more than once."

Despite all this turmoil that would drive a director over the edge, it was just the opposite, Russell, stepped up as the ultra-professional to see if he keep everything together long enough to finish filming. And he almost did, except for that one scene. But as someone pointed out "For him,[Russell] it was so cruel—he was trapped at every turn."

So what does that mean for Nailed. Well after $26 million it's sitting a shelf waiting to be finished. Russell wants to finish it but other "are worn out and feel that nothing is worth the pain of dealing with Bergstein again." But don't put the nail in Nailed's coffin yet, lawyers are now involved to see if they the money and the film from Bergstein and get it finished.

The Daily Beast: Hollywood's Biggest Hustler